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Ancient Egypt and the Modern World
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By Dr Joyce Tyldesley, BBC History
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A popular subject
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Five thousand years ago the chain of independent city-states lining the River Nile united to form one
long, thin country ruled by one king, or pharaoh. Almost instantly a highly distinctive culture developed.
For almost 30 centuries Egypt remained the foremost nation in the Mediterranean world. Then, in 332
BC, the arrival of Alexander the Great heralded the end of the Egyptian way of life. …
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All ancient civilisations have contributed in some way to the development of modern society. All
therefore are equally deserving of study. Why then do so many people choose to concentrate on Egypt?
What does the culture of ancient Egypt offer the modern world that other cultures - those of
Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, or China - do not?
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Those who have been bitten by the Egyptology bug cite a variety of reasons for their addiction - the
beauty of the art, the skill of the craftsmen, the intricacies of the language, the certainties of the priests or even a vague, indefinable feeling that the Egyptians came as close as is humanly possible to living a
near-perfect life. …
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Rich legacy
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Our fascination with ancient Egypt is, to a large extent, a product of the vast amount of material
information available. We know so much about the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians - we can read
their words, meet their families, feel their clothes, taste their food and drink, enter their tombs and even
touch their bodies - that it seems that we almost know them. And knowing them, maybe even loving
them, we feel that we can understand the very human hopes and fears that dominated their lives.
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Preserved in their writings and coded into their artwork the Egyptians asked, and answered, the
questions that all societies ask. What happens after death? How was the world created? Where does the
sun go at night? Lacking any real scientific understanding they answered their own questions with a
series of myths and legends designed to explain the otherwise inexplicable.
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Some of these myths passed from Egypt to Rome, and have had a direct effect on the development of
modern religious belief. Reading and understanding the ancient stories allows us to abandon our modern
preconceptions, step outside our own cultural experiences and enter a very different, life-enhancing
world. …
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Preservation
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Egypt's rich material legacy is the result of her unique funerary beliefs, which, combined with her
distinctive geography, encouraged the preservation of archaeological material. The River Nile flows
northwards through the centre of Egypt, bringing much needed water to an otherwise arid part of northeast Africa.
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Their total dependence on the River Nile as a source of water and a means of transport had a deep
impact on the way that the Egyptians saw the world. Their sun god, the falcon-headed Re, did not cross
the heavens in a flaming chariot, he sailed sedately in a solar boat.
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Parallel to the Nile on both banks of the river runs the Black Land - the narrow strip of fertile soil that
allowed the Egyptians to practice the most efficient agriculture in the ancient world. Beyond the Black
Land lies the inhospitable Red Land, the desert that once served as a vast cemetery, and beyond the Red
Land are the cliffs that protected Egypt from unwelcome visitors.
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Believing that the soul could live beyond death, the Egyptians buried their dead in the Red Land, with
all the goods they considered they would need in what they thought of as the 'afterlife'. While their mudbrick houses have dissolved and their stone temples have decayed, their desert tombs have survived
relatively intact, the dry conditions encouraging the preservation of such delicate materials as plaster,
wood, papyrus, cloth, leather and skin. …
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Pyramids and mathematics
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Egypt's magnificent stone buildings - her pyramids and temples - have inspired innumerable artists,
writers, poets and architects from the Roman period to the present day. The pyramid form, in particular,
still pays an important role in modern architecture, and can be seen rising above cemeteries and
innumerable shopping centres, and at the new entrance to the Louvre Museum, Paris.
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The original pyramids serve as a testament to the mathematical skill of the Egyptians, a skill that
stimulated Greek mathematicians, including Pythagoras, to perfect their work. The Great Pyramid, built
by Khufu (Cheops) in 2550 BC, for example, stands an impressive 46m (150ft) high, with a slope of
51degrees. Its sides, with an average length of 230m (754ft), vary by less than 5cm (2in). Higher than St
Paul's Cathedral, the pyramid was aligned with amazing accuracy almost exactly to true north.
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But the pyramids are more than mathematical puzzles. They hold the key to understanding the structure
of Egyptian society. The pyramids were built, not by the gangs of slaves often portrayed by Hollywood
film moguls, but by a workforce of up to 5,000 permanent employees, supplemented by as many as
20,000 temporary workers, who would work for three or four months on the pyramid site, before
returning home.
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The bureaucracy that we know lay behind this operation is staggering. Not only did the workforce have
to be summoned, housed and fed, but administrators also had to coordinate the supplies of stone, rope,
fuel and wood that were needed to support the building work. Pyramid studies confirm that a premechanical society can, given adequate resources and the will to succeed, achieve great things. Pyramid
building would have been impossible without strong government backed up by an efficient civil service.
No wonder many archaeologists believe that, while the Egyptians undeniably built the pyramids, the
pyramids also built Egypt.
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Beneath the bandages
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The Egyptians were renowned throughout the Mediterranean world for their medical skills, skills that
were eventually passed on to the Greek and the Roman doctors that followed them. Unlike those of other
ancient societies, the Egyptians were experienced in dissecting corpses because, believing that their
souls needed an earthly body, they preserved their dead as mummies. …